Welcome to the Jim Acosta show, TGIF edition of the Jim Acosta show. Thank goodness, it's Friday.

We finally got there, everybody. And on screen right there, you can see me joining me on the program

today is the former mayor of New Orleans top Biden administration official, Mitch Landrieu.

Mr. Mayor, great to see you.

Thank you, Jim. And first of all, before we say anything,

let me thank you for your courage and your willingness to kind of bear witness to this

kind of thing in the Constitution that says we have a constitutional right to, you know,

justify our grievances against our government. It's a good, it's a good thing. And the importance of the First

Amendment, which we're going to need to, you know, lean on more heavily going forward. So thank you.

There's a lot of use of the First Amendment going around these days. A lot of use of free speech and

some freedom of the press, too, although the current administration and power has a bone to pick with, I guess,

that part of the First Amendment. But we'll get into some of that stuff. I guess, Mitch, first

of all, I wanted to get into this question of will they or won't they? It looks like we won't have

a government shutdown, although we haven't seen the final votes come in yet, but a battle has emerged

inside the Democratic Party

over what to do about this continuing resolution that's pending up on Capitol Hill and how to

battle Donald Trump. The Washington Post is saying the spending bill is expected to pass the Senate,

but it could bolster Donald Trump's push to rest power away from Congress and give the administration even greater control over the budget as he seeks to shrink the federal government.

I mean, Mitch, one of the issues with this continuing resolution, as I understand it from reading the Washington Post, is that the CR would essentially hand Donald Trump and Elon Musk something of a blank check to spend the money

that goes into these various agencies and departments however they see fit unlike a spending bill,

a budget bill, which very specifically says how you spend the money. So a lot of Democrats are

saying to Chuck Schumer, don't do it. Don't go for this. Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader

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